I see now what you are saying. I would say you have 2 choices, live with the air ni the line, or rebuild. If you choose to rebuild, hopefully you can save the ball valves. They are so expensive that I always try to put in shut off and check valves in a way that I can salvage them in the event of a future rebuild. In you case, you really don't have much room to work with so I would try to build in more room between the tee and you pump. Then you can use a male/male fitting in the pump, and a quick connect fitting on that.